Nick Collison with a mailbag for GQ answering which Thunder players would survive a Zombie apocolypse: I think most of us would. We are used to running and pushing through fatigue. We are used to being in stressful situations together, and we have each others’ backs. Sadly, however, I think we would lose a couple guys. Take, for instance, Reggie Jackson, our rookie, who cannot seem to stay awake for any extended period of time and passes out on all flights within five minutes, as he did here with Serge Ibaka and Cole Aldrich. I fear Reggie would doze off somewhere and the zombies would get to him. I think Kendrick Perkins would be OK at first, but eventually he would look at a zombie and not like the way the zombie was looking at him. If you know Perk the way I know Perk, you know he wouldn’t be able to resist getting face to face with the zombie and letting him know he doesn’t play. He could fight off a few of the zombies, but eventually there would be too many, and I’m worried he wouldn’t make it. Meanwhile, James Harden would definitely survive, because a zombie is not going to want to get any of that beard in his throat while trying to eat his brain.”
Jordan Kahn of Hickory High breaking down some OKC offense: “On Durant’s game winning basket Shawn Marion played great defense, as many pundits have already noted. However, the way the play was originally set up, Durant would not have had to deal with Marion at all. With Westbrook inbounding the ball, Kendrick Perkins sets a screen for Durant to come receive the ball. The Mavs switch on the screen, leaving Ian Mahinmi to guard Durant. This would be a big mismatch, but Delonte West effectively denies the inbounds pass. Durant is forced to come back to the top of the key to receive the ball, where Marion is waiting. The Mavs switch back and get their best defender back onto Durant. Durant hits a great shot anyway, but perhaps things could have been much easier against Mahinmi.”
You know, Serge looks pretty good stroking this 3.
Jason Terry vows to be better in crunch time.
Ibaka on this charge he’s grabbing and holding Dirk: “I no worry about. Me or my teammate, we don’t worry about the ref or the foul. We just try to play basketball and play hard. We know it’s playoff basketball. Maybe next game, we get some foul. Can’t be worrying about they give us foul or we give them foul. I know it’s hard to play defense on Dirk, but we did great. All the other big, me, Perk, Nick, Naz.”
KD saying he loves Oklahoma for the billionth time.
The Clippers 28-3 run last night was pretty crazy.
KD talking about the game-winner yesterday: “I took a glance at it when I was dribbling,” Durant said, smiling. “I took so many shots since I’ve been playing this game, you kind of now where you are on the floor and I’ve been working on that pull-up for a while. It’s a difficult shot over two guys, but Shawn Marion did a great job of contesting, and I got that bounce. And you always hear about the shooter’s bounce. I’m glad it went in for me.”
Russell Westbrook’s top 10 plays of the year.
Thunderground Radio recap from Game 1.
Jean-Jacques Taylor of ESPN Dallas says the Mavs have to slow down Westbrook: “At one level, we shouldn’t be surprised at Westbrook’s effectiveness because he’s bigger, faster, quicker and stronger than Jet. It’s just that he usually expends so much energy on offense that playing defense isn’t at the top of his priority list. But these are the playoffs and priorities change. Controlling Westbrook is now the Mavs’ top priority. If they can’t do it, then their championship reign will end within the next 13 days.”
I want to see Top 10 Russell tonight. Saturday's game was nice Russell, I want to see angry, dominant and just plain nasty Russ. Somebody put together wppj's top 10 to send to Russ just to piss him off.
@KellOne I'd like to see the Space Jam move where Jordan steps on somebody's face on the way to a dunk. Preferably Jason Terry's face. Westbrook could totally do it.
@sammasaaron @KellOne I thought he was saving that for Wade in the finals.
@sammasaaron If he steps on Terry's, Dirk's, and Carlisle's face all on one shot, is that traveling?
So, in light of Rondo's temper-tantrum last night, can we all agree that trading Westbrook for Rondo (as was rumored before the season) was/is a terrible, terrible idea? Please?
@sammasaaronWell I just got traded to Boston on 2K12 and I've found Rondo to be an excellent teammate.
@sammasaaron Every sane person already knew this anyway. It's the reactionists that, well, over-react.
@sammasaaron it was a terrible idea even before any of that. rondo would be horrible on our team.
@sammasaaron Like x1000
I think we win easy tonight. I just don't think Dallas can stay with us. They took their best shot Saturday. Jet was on fire, KD was off, Mahinmi hit 4-4 FTs...OKC controls the game and wins by 8-10 points
@kfmsooner Marion hit three threes, THREE!
@diddoff @kfmsooner he only made 20 the whole regular season
@f5alcon @diddoff @kfmsooner it's amazing to think how far he's fallen off in that department. He used to be draino from 3 in phoenix
@f5alcon @diddoff @kfmsooner What happens when you leave a guy open. In words of 2k12, "They All can shoot 3's, they're all proffesionals, put your hands up". Funny that a true statement comes from a video gam. I know one of Ibaka's trait was the ability to shoot from 3, but i bet none of us expected that play to go down.
@diddoff @kfmsooner We should try to guard him
@KellOne @kfmsooner THREE!
@kfmsooner I'm not so eager to dismiss the Mavs. I think we will win the series in five games but most of them will be hard fought.
@justin_mia @kfmsooner I've been thinking this series will play out like the Denver one from last year. A bunch of tight games, but we win on the backs of our stars.
Jordan Hill charged with a 3rd degree assault. May get locked for 10 years, he choked a family member
@ILikePancakes I kind of feeling like this is a grab at his money. He is only in the spotlight recently and this charge is for an event that happened in February. Hoping it's just a greedy family member, I liked watching him play when he got his shot for the LAL.
Playoff Retrospective: Z-Bo and Dirk were unconscious last year, against the Thunder's strongest defensive position. Maybe that was just really bad luck?
@ATH Felt like Z-Bo only shot fade-aways yesterday. He hit them last year but still..
No! Tony Mitchell's going back to North Texas. Was projected as a mid-late first round pick and would've been one heckuva steal for us. Was probably my favorite realistic pick for us too... Kinda bummed
Watching the replay of BOS-ATL. Funny how terrible the Celtics offense looks when they aren't hitting contested long twos.
On the subject of Royal, can we talk about why he isn't getting Fish's minutes? Better defender? Ivey. Better spot up shooter? Ivey. Better with the ball in his hands? Ivey. Vet? All of the above. Experience with the Thunder? Ivey.
So... why is Fish not doing Ivey's role of cheering at the end of the bench?
@JimboSlice Explanation: Brooks prefers to allot playing minutes proportionate to the roster's pay scale.
@JimboSlice (the "get your money's worth" philosophy of coaching)
And I'm very tired of hearing "At some point Fisher is going to hit a very big shot in crunch time." Maybe so, but to me that doesn't equate to 20 minutes of playing time, game after game.
@Smoke Cuban Yeah, Fish is getting minutes based on what he did years ago and not necessarily on what he can contribute now. It's a shame, hope they give ivey more minutes.
@Smoke Cuban this frustrates me as well. He wouldn't have to hit that one big shot if he didn't go 0'fer on the previous 7
@Smoke Cuban not to mention that Fish hasn't run an offense since Phil instituted the triangle, so Ivey is truly just as much of a point as he is. So basically... other than reputation (and the fact that Fish has made it known he doesn't want to sit.. at least while he was in LA), there really isn't a sound reason to play Fish at all in this series, if ever.
@JimboSlice In theory, Fish is a point guard and Ivey really isn't. But, with the exception of the last 2 regular season games, Fish hasn't been playing the true point. Although I like Fish and agree with adding him to the team, I think it's important to use what we have to counter the other team's strengths the best we can. Ivey will frustrate Terry much more than Fish.
Not trying to tell Brooks what to do, BUT ---- Give Westbrook a break from Terry and bring on Royal for 3 minute stints. How quickly we forget about his defense on DWade, among others. Fisher and Cook can't cover him and Thabo is usually sitting when Terry checks in.
@Smoke Cuban Yeah, Ivey should get Fisher's minutes. Fish is doing nothing offensively and is liability on defense.
@Smoke Cuban I agree with that but harden cant cover terry either one of the reason we lost last year actually.
@Lost Ones Good point. So maybe bring in Royal and give him a try when Westbrook sits. Russ shouldn't be out for more than 3-4 minutes at a time anyway.
@Smoke Cuban @Lost yea i agree , our coach has to realize this is the playoffs, you cant be having cook out there guarding vince carter when every position is meaningful.
Imagine what this board would be like if the Thunder blew that large of lead that late in a playoff game
Top of the Devon Tower would be momentarily crowded . . .
@anonymous12345 That's easy...."FIRE SCOTT BROOKS!!"
Oh wait, that's just a normal day here at DT.
@Tronchaser @anonymous12345 It's FIRE SCOTT BROOKS win or lose
@anonymous12345 About the same as it was when we were down 7. All predicting a 4 game, first round exit.
http://www.tmz.com/2012/04/30/jordan-hill-felony-choking-family-member-los-angeles-lakers/
And, so the Lakers lose another player.
@ou_sas holy crap
@ou_sas i'm not a lawyer so does this actually mean he will miss a game? it seems like people get charged with stuff all the time but just bond out and go on with life as usual until trial
@MD4Okc @ou_sas Nah, he won't miss any games. Post bond after initially plea and lawyers can push initially trial date 2-3 months back, that's if they don't strike pleas for lesser charges.
@neo12 @MD4Okc It also depends on if the judge decides to let him post a bond. In light of the crime, he may not.
@neo12 @MD4Okc It will depend also on the Laker organization's reaction. Do they care about the bad pub of playing someone who's been charged without taking at least one game to figure things out? Dunno. I figure he'll miss tomorrow night's game at least from a "let's figure out what's going on" point of view, if nothing else. I do know they've reported there's a warrant out for his arrest. If he doesn't have a lawyer at the moment, he's probably been finding one ASAP and the team probably wants him to have that dealt with before playing basketball.
@ou_sas
ESPN is now reporting it
Seen a bunch of NBA bloggers linking to this, but no other stories supporting it yet.